many discussions over the years about whether or not Ingrid was using dark magic. But Katherine had always seen the best in her until that night. Ingrid was never openly warm to you, I’m afraid to say.”
“Nothing’s changed there,” Snow said with a sigh.
Her father nodded sadly. “Ingrid seemed jealous of you from the start. She never wanted to hold you or play with you like your mother or the handmaidens did. More and more Ingrid spent her days tucked away in her chambers doing lord knows what. When Katherine came to me that day after visiting her sister, she was extremely distraught. She wanted the mirror gone. Kept saying Ingrid and the mirror had become one and the same. I didn’t understand what she meant. She told me to order it removed immediately, but then . . .” He turned away, holding his face in his hands. “I should have done it the moment Katherine asked. Why didn’t I listen?”
“You didn’t know what she was capable of,” Henri said gently. “Who would think someone would kill their own sister?”
“An enchanted mirror,” Snow repeated. Something about this was familiar. She just couldn’t remember why. “I’ve never heard the servants talk about such an item.”
“They probably wouldn’t know about it,” her father said. “Ingrid has always been very possessive and quite suspicious of others. Your mother said she kept it to herself.”
They talked long into the night, Snow’s father wanting to know what she did with her time in the castle. It angered him to hear she’d had to teach herself and spend her days cleaning. But he smiled wistfully when she mentioned she’d preserved the aviary. “Your mother would have loved that,” he said, getting teary again. When she produced the Red Fire apple from her pocket, she thought he might cry a river of tears.
“I think we should turn in,” Henri suggested as Snow consoled Georg. “It’s been a long day, and we have a long journey back tomorrow.”
“Yes,” Snow said, but she was also disappointed. Her time with her father had been too short, and she still didn’t know if they had anything useful for the fight with the queen. If no one knew about this mirror, how could it help them?
But those thoughts quickly faded as she fell into a deep sleep.
Ten years earlier
Even though she was on the other side of the castle, she could feel the mirror awakening. The simple gesture of the mirror coming alive had become as common as feeling the blood flow through her veins.
But the mirror never awoke unless she was near it—no one else alive knew of its existence, so it only called to her. That day, however, she could feel it speaking to another.
That person would regret it.
“Your Majesty?” her private advisor said, pulling her from her thoughts. He consulted the scroll in his hand again. “You were saying that it’s time for the kingdom’s flag to return to full height?”
“What?” Ingrid snapped, her fingers gripping the edges of her throne so tight that her nails made indents in the gold-leafed wood.
She needed to get out of this room immediately and to her private chambers to see what was going on. But she noticed her court’s reaction to her tone. They couldn’t understand why a queen who wasn’t of royal blood was allowed to rule. But those fears had been quietly dismissed when it was announced Georg had “abandoned” his people. She had argued that Snow was too young to rule, which was true. And since Georg’s siblings had died of the plague years prior, there was no other heir. It was Ingrid or no one till Snow was of age, and many agreed. Those were the ones still standing before her. For now, if Ingrid was going to make changes, she needed allies, and she had to court sympathy for losing both her sister and her new husband in such quick succession.
“I’m sorry for my outburst,” Ingrid said, holding her head. “I seem to have developed a terrible headache.”
“Oh, Your Majesty!” Mila, her new lady-in-waiting, was at her side immediately. “We should get you to your chambers to lie down. We can’t have you falling ill.”
This insipid handmaiden had been like a hawk, following her around the castle, asking if she could be of assistance. Ingrid just wanted to be left alone! But then again, someone had to take care of her requests. So she had let this woman, who seemed so devoted to her, stay. Still, she